


An Ending

by Moonrose91



Series: The Burns Family Chronicles [5]
Category: Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Ending Relationship, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-12
Updated: 2012-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-18 12:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/561225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose91/pseuds/Moonrose91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything must come to an end, whether through one way or another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Final Say

Charlie Burns smiled as Graham carefully put his two year old brother in the stroller. "All right, you got the emergency numbers?" Charlie asked.

"Your cell, the Griffin Rock Emergency line, and Mother's cell," Graham reassured him, grinning up at him. Charlie laughed and pat Graham's shoulder. "Good. You'll be home before dark?" Charlie questioned.

"Yes, sir," Graham answered and he walked around, kneeling down to make sure he had everything in the back basket of the stroller before he stood up again.

"Got everything?" Charlie asked.

"According to the list I made, yep," Graham responded and Charlie nodded.

He paused as Graham adjusted the stroller sun cover once more and reached out, gently placing his hand on Graham's shoulder, causing his middle son to look up at him. "Graham, I really appreciate you doing this for me."

"Not a problem Dad. I love looking after Cody and you need to have some alone time with Mother. Especially since it is your anniversary is coming up and I know that you are pulling a double duty that night. Best to get it all ready and do a dinner before and a more involved date after, right?” Graham answered and Charlie laughed a little.

“I wasn’t thinking that at all, actually. I…forgot I was doing double duty on my anniversary,” Charlie answered and Graham looked like he was about to ask when Cody began to fuss.

“Pok!” Cody demanded and Graham laughed.

“All right, all right, we’re going to the park,” Graham answered as he leaned over to make sure Cody was still strapped in.

“Pok!” Cody laughed and then tried to steal Graham’s glasses.

“Whoa there Cody. No stealing my glasses,” Graham answered, pulling back.

“Gwam fwames! Mine!” Cody answered and Graham grinned.

“No, not yours. Graham’s, mine,” Graham responded and tapped Cody’s nose, earning a laugh.

Charlie watched with a smile and a tousled Graham’s hair before he knelt down. “Daddai! Pway peas!” Cody squealed.

“Not right now kiddo. Later. You’re going with Graham now,” Charlie answered and Cody pouted.

“Daddai no pway?” Cody asked, obviously confused.

“Later. Behave for Graham,” Charlie answered and leaned in to give Cody a kiss on the forehead.

“Tickle!” Cody squealed and Charlie stood while Graham began to work on getting them going.

“I’ll see you after dinner. There is food in the fridge for you to reheat. Are you _sure_ you can watch Cody on your own for a few hours?” Charlie questioned.

“Positive Dad. Besides, Doc and Doctor Greene are meeting us at the park. They have a daughter Cody’s age,” Graham answered and Charlie laughed.

“All right then. Have fun and keep safe,” he answered and Graham saluted before he began to push Cody toward the park.

Charlie watched them go and turned, heading inside. “Jenny?” he called as he stepped back into the house.

“Kitchen,” Jenny called and Charlie walked into the kitchen. He frowned a bit when he saw her sitting at the kitchen table, compulsively folding and unfolding a large pack of papers.

“Jenny, is something wrong?” he questioned as he walked in and she shifted nervously before she stood up and threw the papers into the drawer of miscellaneous things. “No, nothing’s wrong,” she answered and he frowned a little more before he stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Jenny, it’s not _nothing_. You were staring at those papers, whatever they were, like they were both your execution and your salvation. Is it news on your new book?” Charlie pressed softly, but she just shook her head and then tried to shrug out from under his hand.

“Jenny,” he began again.

“We’re going to be late and we haven’t been out, just the two of us, since Cody was born. Before, actually. Please, can we just go?” she interrupted and Charlie sighed.

“Okay,” he gave in softly.

She smiled in relief and hugged him before she grabbed his hand, gently tugging him toward the car. He made sure he had the rescue wireless on him before he followed the gentle tug.

They  _would_ be talking about this later.

But, for now, he would follow Jenny's lead of ignoring it for the length of dinner.


	2. Loss

Graham laughed as he picked up a very dirty Cody. “How did you get so dirty?” he asked, even if he knew how.

Cody and Frankie had gone all out in playing in the dirt with each other. Doc Greene had joined in, even, proving that he was just a big as kid as his daughter and her new found friend (and proving that Cody just loved to speak in one word exclamations, as he held a very long conversation with Frankie that involved, of all things, rescue vehicles and robots), while Graham and Doctor “Call me Joyce, please” Greene had stayed well out of the range of the dirt.

“Frankie! I wuff Frankie! Frankie fun!” Cody squealed and Graham laughed again, his shirt getting stained with dirt as he carried Cody to the kitchen. He settled his little brother in his high-chair and used a few wet paper towels to clean off Cody’s hands, arms, and face before he threw them away.

Soon, both he and Cody had spaghetti on them.

Cleaning up the kitchen could wait till after he had Cody washed and changed, along with being settled into bed.

Graham immediately went upstairs to his bathroom, which looked ready to give a two year old a bath.

He worked on getting the tub filled with warm water and Cody’s bath toys before he began to strip Cody out of his dirty clothes, Cody laughing gleefully and waving his arms around while insisting on telling Graham about his play date with Frankie, even when Graham had been there. He smiled and soon had Cody splashing away and making animal sounds as he played in the bath, Graham prompting him by singing ‘Old McDonald’.

“Oink oink!” Cody squealed, splashing dirty water up onto Graham’s face.

He jerked his head back with a laugh before he focused on getting Cody cleaned off, already realizing that he would have to drain this water and fill it up with clean water again.

Cody was filthy, but he didn’t stay still for showers, not liking the shower head at all and often trying to run out of the room when they tried.

Graham, without anyone else in the house, wasn’t going to risk Cody slipping and cracking his head open.

He sighed as Cody was no closer to getting clean when Graham began to switch out the dirty water for clean, letting Cody play a bit. “All done?” Cody asked.

“Not yet,” Graham answered as he began to refill the tub, thankful that it was warm from the beginning.

And Cody loved splashing the water coming from the faucet more then playing with the water in the tube, though it caused more of a mess. He easily focused on getting Cody cleaned up more, turning off the water once it was filled to where Dad had marked, with a ducky bath sticker, where it was supposed to go.

This was enough to get Cody completely clean and Cody was now fussing because he was tired.

Graham easily lifted him out, wrapping him up in a fluffy towel before hauling him off and into their shared room. He made sure to dry Cody off completely before he got Cody dressed in his pajamas. Cody, fussing a bit still, had Graham wishing he could get changed a bit, before he, carefully, put Cody in his cot and grabbed his own change of clothes. He made sure to wash up and change quickly so Cody wasn’t left alone for long, and then focused on turning on Cody’s light and music projector, only for it not to.

Graham frowned and sighed a bit, Cody’s soft whimpers filling the air.

“It’s okay Cody. It seems that your nightlight’s batteries died. I need to get another set. Come on,” Graham answered and picked Cody up again.

His little brother cried a little, and Graham knew that Cody was tired and wanting his usual routine, which wasn’t happening. Graham bounced Cody a little and went over to the power strip that was filled with battery recharging stations, only to find them empty. “Of course,” Graham muttered, even as Cody began to build up to an impressive wail.

Graham opened up the miscellaneous drawer, only to find papers that had the Maine State seal on them. He picked them up, his curiosity peeked, only to find that they were divorce papers.

They weren’t filled out, just picked up from the mainland courthouse, hopefully, and Graham immediately shoved them into the back pocket of his jeans before he got out some disposable batteries and shut the drawer quickly, walking quickly up the stairs.

He settled Cody back into his bed and replaced the batteries, hands shaking slightly.

Two years ago, more or less, he had snarled out at his mother that he could envision her leaving them and breaking his dad’s heart.

He had thought that, maybe, with Cody around, she would stay around too.

Graham turned it on and stars, along with plunky soothing music filled the air, slowly settling Cody down, but Graham refused to let that be the only thing. He immediately picked up Cody and held him closely. “It’s okay Cody, I’m here. Your big brother’s here. How about a story, huh?” Graham stated, even as he picked up the well loved story book they always read.

“Pete the Pup!” Cody squealed and Graham smiled, even if he didn’t feel like it.

“Ham sad. Why Ham sad?” Cody asked and Graham smiled a bit.

“I’ll tell you…later,” Graham answered and he pressed a kiss to Cody’s forehead before he opened up the book.

“Pete was the smallest pup in the litter, smaller then even his one sister, Polly…” Graham began, Cody slowly relaxing against him.

The story wasn’t even close to being done when Cody fell asleep, but Graham kept reading.

When it was done, he settled Cody into bed, tucked him in, and pulled the papers out of his pocket. He eyed them with a type of fury he usually reserved for his mother when no one was around or Mr. Hightower, and then opened the drawer of his nightstand, opened the hard backed book he kept there, and placed them in as a bookmark before returning the book to its place.

No one would look twice at it.

After all, he _always_ used paper whatever as a bookmark.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jenifer laughed a bit as she and Charlie walked back into the house. “Dad, Mother, how was your dinner?” Graham asked and she looked over to find Graham standing at the base of the stairs.

“It was great. How was Cody?” Charlie answered.

“Asleep. Frankie and Doc Greene really tired him out,” Graham responded with a smile.

Charlie smiled and pat his shoulder. “Good to hear. I, unfortunately, have an early day tomorrow, so I’m heading to bed,” Charlie answered.

He kissed Jennifer on the cheek and looked at her searchingly. “I’m fine Charlie. Promise,” she explained and he nodded.

“Okay. Night Jenny,” Charlie answered and turned to Graham, who hugged him.

“Night Dad,” Graham answered.

“Night Graham,” Charlie answered and Graham let him go while Jenny drifted into the kitchen.

Tea and retrieving the papers.

“You won’t find them there,” Graham stated and she jumped a foot in the air, grabbing her chest in surprise as she turned around.

“Graham, you scared me,” she panted out.

“The divorce papers are not there. I moved them. When you make a choice, I will give them back and pretend to be as shocked as everyone else if you sign them,” Graham answered and turned around.

She listened to him return to his room and, even if she had heard they were gone, she opened the drawer to find only pens, paper clips, loose rubber bands, and a rubber band ball, along with screws and screwdrivers and batteries for ‘just in case.’

 _If_ she signed them?

She smiled a bit.

That uncertainty she would leave told her that, deep down, maybe, just maybe, Graham could forgive her, one day.

She glanced at her watch and frowned a bit.

She and Matthew were going to the mainland tomorrow.

The thought made her giddy, especially as Cody was going over to the Greenes tomorrow.

The kids would be at school.

She sighed as she closed the drawer.

While she felt guilty about it, she didn’t want to stop it either.

Jennifer considered her watch again and then drifted up to bed.

Might as well get sleep while she can.

Cody sometimes still woke up in the middle of the night.


End file.
